Thesis of Project: The USAID Ghana Partnership for Education: Learning activity aims to support Ghana's educational institutions over five years, with the goal of improving, expanding and sustaining learning outcomes for at least 2.8 million primary students nationwide. The Learning activity is part of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Partnership for Education project to support the early grade reading and literacy improvement activities implemented by the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service.

Under USAID’s Ghana Learning, pupils will learn to read in their local language, gradually learning letter sounds and word reading. They will be able to practice these skills in the classroom and at home with pupil books that provide pictures, simple sentences and eventually short stories that enable children to understand what they read in a familiar Ghanaian language. The Ghanaian language reading will be complimented by a beginning English program. Learning’s approach will be implemented in schools and classrooms using best practices from USAID reading programs, which are summarized by the five “T"s: time, test, text, teaching, and tongue.

SIL LEAD overall contribution to project:

SIL LEAD consultants have contributed to the project through language analysis and development of the scope and sequence for each language; collaboration on the development of lesson plan templates, teacher guides, pupil books, and supplementary materials for KG2, P1, and P2; and facilitation of four materials development workshops.

Summary of the project:

Under Learning, pupils in Ghana will learn to read in their local language, gradually learning letter sounds and word reading. They will be able to practice these skills in the classroom and at home with pupil books that provide pictures, simple sentences and eventually short stories that enable children to understand what they read in a familiar Ghanaian language. The Ghanaian language reading will be complimented by a beginning English program. Learning’s approach will be implemented in schools and classrooms using best practices from USAID reading programs, which are summarized by the five “T"s: time, test, text, teaching and tongue.

Learning has worked with partners to develop a detailed plan for developing materials for 11 GL and English. English instruction will follow an approach that is consistent with the policies in practice in Ghana. The materials development process will rapidly produce teacher guides with scripted lessons and pupil books with decodable text (P1) and leveled text (P2) in 11 Ghanaian languages. FHI 360 will receive substantial expertise and support for materials development from both SIL LEAD and GILLBT.

In addition to Teachers Guides (with scripted lessons) and Pupil Books, SIL LEAD and GILLBT will also support the development of supplemental readers for P1 (format to be determined in consultation with FHI 360) and P2 (leveled readers as specified by FHI 360). FHI 360 will work with both SIL LEAD and GILLBT to determine the best time to develop the supplemental materials however, we will aim at developing them concurrently with the other materials during the writing workshops.